Wow, the final “Poll Day” of 2004, with my last look at the state polls released over the last seven days. Funny how time flies when you’re all-consumed with a presidential election. You may have assumed that the picture would grow clearer as we got closer to Election Day. There’d be fewer undecideds, many of […]
The fact that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has abandoned her traditionally non-political role to hit swing states for Bush raised a few eyebrows last week, but the reality is she’s hardly the only one. Just as the NSA has always been kept separate from partisan politics, so too has the Treasury secretary. Until now. […]
A few days before the first Bush-Kerry debate, I suggested the Bush campaign’s spin machine may have been a little too good. BC04 had spent about $150 million before the Miami debate to convince voters that Kerry was unimpressive and uninspiring. The image the Bush gang had created was that of a dull, rigid man, […]
A month ago, the Republican National Committee sent out a mailing insisting that “liberals” are planning to “ban” the Bible. I said at the time it was “the most disturbing piece of direct mail I’ve ever seen.” I was wrong — the RNC has stooped even lower. A writer called The Blue Lemur, whom I […]
Knight Ridder, which has been reporting on Iraq as well as any outlet in America, had an excellent item today about missing weapons materials in the country — that go way beyond Al Qaqaa. Huge amounts of arms and ammunition were stolen from military sites, and there’s “ample evidence” that Iraqi insurgents are firing looted […]
You’ll be pleased to know that our Department of Homeland Security has done such a terrific job, it no longer has to worry about terrorist threats. This must be true, otherwise DHS officials wouldn’t be going after toy stores for selling products that infringe on trademarks. So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie […]
Ridiculous though it may be, there are millions of voters who don’t make up their minds about which presidential candidate to back until the very last week of the campaign. Why they can’t choose in advance is truly beyond me, but this nevertheless happens every election season. But in 2004, this should be yet another […]
Three weeks ago, at the vice presidential debate, John Edwards railed against no-bid contracts for Halliburton. Dick Cheney dismissed the accusations out of hand. “Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they’re trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false…. It’s an effort that they’ve made repeatedly to try […]
I know this is a couple of days old, but Peter Galbraith’s column in the Boston Globe on Wednesday, brought to my attention by B.C., captures the intense, and poignant, regret of a man who backed the war in Iraq and helped make it happen. Galbraith saw first hand that Iraq was slipping away almost […]
Bush on March 17, 2003, shortly before the war began: “Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them. If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you.” A peer-reviewed study, released […]